Before all that, take a break and come celebrate with us! Saturday, Dec. 6th, both SMC groups will be converging on San Marcos again for another fun time mixer. We’ll be meeting at Tres Hermanas Restaurant and Cantina @ 5:30 p.m. and we’ll leave when the party stops.

Sign up for the event on Eventbrite HERE.

I look forward to seeing you all out there. If you  need to carpool, let us know, we don’t want you to not go over something as little as a ride, our group can coordinate to ensure that everyone that wants to go can go.

Greetings SMC’ers! I wanted to share with everyone an event that is coming up in January (Jan. 31) to kick off the new year. FreelanceCampSA is the first FreelanceCamp in all of Texas. We look to gather freelancers, entrepreneurs, and independent business owners together to learn and share, and ultimately learn and earn.

You can read more about FreelanceCampSA on the wiki page HERE.

If you’re interested in going to the event, make sure you sign up via Eventbrite before it gets full. You can do that by clicking HERE.

Finally spread the word, share with your friends, there is a lot to learn from one another and everyone has their own experiences when venturing out on your own. I’m also looking for sponsors, at $250 for first level and $500 for the second level. I’d like to see a citywide community come together to promote the affair, but I invite Austin, Houston, and other outlying areas to come to San Antonio for what is sure to be an amazing event!

Contact me if you have any questions on Twitter: @pandaran, or via email at luissandovaljr [at] gmail [dot] com.

We’ll be meeting at Tres Hermanas restaurant in San Marcos at 5:30 p.m. For those of you that made the Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells event, it will be the same location.

We look forward to you joining us for an evening of comraderie and well wishing. More details as they develop.

To kick the year off I’m putting together FreelanceCamp at the end of January. The camp looks to highlight the lifestyles of freelancers, entrepreneurs, independent business owners and start-ups! We’ll discuss ways to find and follow leads, co-working, building a solid business, setting your own hours, how to hire, how out-source, you name it, we’ve got it. These are just a few of the ideas some of our peers have shared interest in, what are yours?

But I can’t do this alone. I’ll need some co-organizers to help make this event a success! A few of you have already responded, and I thank you, but more hands to help is always useful.

If you’re interested give me a call at 210-782-4439, or email me at luissandovaljr@gmail.com.

Tell your friends in Austin and Houston, I’d like this event to see some huge success. Thanks for all your support!

San Antonio College, Nail Technical Center, Rm. 140. Parking is available in Lot 21.

Come join us from 6-8 p.m. for insightful topics, great networking opportunities, and of course food and drinks! Tomorrow’s meeting is an open session with a topic to be chosen at the beginning. We’ll also be discussing SMC-SA Christmas mixer as well as future topics and businesses that will be coming in to present in 2009.

We look forward to seeing you there! If you have problems finding the location, please be sure to contact me at 210-782-4439.

Jennifer Navarrete, an organizer for this worldwide event, has written a very compelling post which explains and encourages everyone to jump on board. It can be as easy or complex as you want to make it, or as long or short as you decide.

Go the semi-professional route with tools like Blog Talk Radio or Talkshoe, or on the fly tools like Utterli which you can call in by phone. All of these tools are free and easy for you to use.

If you’re interested in joining after reading this post and Jennifer’s post, then feel free to join the Ning Group and get ready to record!

Every Tuesday from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m. there is co-working going on at La Taza Coffee House.

Every 1st Friday you can find co-working at Firecat Studio.

Every Thursday the co-working crowd is meeting at Casa Chiapas from 10 a.m. till 5 p.m.

There is a lot of opportunity for entrepreneurs, work from home warriors, or other industry professionals that can break away from the office and come together in a common space to share, grow and learn.

If you have any questions regarding co-working, what it is, or how it can benefit you, leave a comment and we’ll make sure you’re responded to as quickly as possible. We’d love to have you join and perhaps the best way to understand is to show up!

While everyone was mingling and enjoying the meal that was provided by FireCat Studio and brought by Daniella Matutes, Alan Weinkrantz gave out four raffle prizes that once again kept SMC members laughing and amazed at the generosity of our city’s media leaders.

Meeting topic was “Best Business Practices,” which was later changed thanks to some input from Social Media Club Founder Chrish Heuer, to “Best Known Methods,” or “BKM.”

After introductions, Luis Sandoval started the meeting dicussioning BKM for social media professionals, and novices. Many examples were shared from his personal experience, experiences from the clientele he works with, along with examples that others have shared with him. The opening commentary sparked a lot of interest from the group and soon everyone was participating.

The key factor for “BKM” is that there is no definite solution, simply the best methods that have been discovered so far, but not to say they are the only ways. It’s safe to say that because social media is self governing, there are socially accepted and detested behaviors that we will define during our user experience. Those in the group shared their personal experiences and asked some good questions that kept everyone involved.

Those new to social media were wide eyed and surprised that Social Media could be so “complicated” but in reality, the acceptable and detestable behaviors are no different than those you would have when meeting a person face to face. Scott Alan, author of Virtual Handshake, stresses the importance of online ettiquette which is typically forgotten because the face to face factor has been taken away. He says that online conversation is just as important if not moreso because the text we convey must convey what our hand motions, body language, eyes, and tone of voice would all convey in a personal situation.

After the meeting everyone felt energetic and motivated to take what they learned out into the online world. In order to keep that buzz alive, Jennifer Navarette held a raffle for Dave Evan’s new book Social Media Marketing, An Hour a Day. An excellent book that shares step by step how to appropriatly market yourself and/or your product online using social media tools.

A fun time was had by all and a very special thanks to San Antonio College for allowing us to host our SMC Meeting on campus, FireCat Studio and Daniella Matutes for providing the food and refreshments for the evening, and especially Alan Weinkrantz and Dave Evans for providing the raffle prizes for the evening.

You can find a recording of our meeting at http://tinyurl.com/463wfp

Enjoy!

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

San Antonio College, Nail Technical Center, Rm. 025

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Food and refreshments provided

Raffle prizes for those in attendance

Come join us for an amazing night of camaraderie with others in the media industry across all disciplines. We’ll be discussing “best known methods” when it comes to interaction and marketing on various social networks. As we all know, there is a right and a wrong way to do everything, and social media is no exception. Come for an educational experience and perhaps share your experiences.

See ya there!

The position is voluntary currently, but a great way to gain exposure and get to know the tech blogging community. Paid positions are upcoming before the year is out, but if you’re interested in joining a great team, getting some exposure and writing under your belt. Let me know.

You can contact me on Twitter as @pandaran, or via email at luissandovaljr@gmail.com

Have a great one San Antonio!